Something to Believe In
by Amberwind2001
Summary: "Churches are just buildings, Rose."


Post-ep for TSP, in response to the July 2007 Picture Prompts, image #20, over at **time_and_chips**.

~.o0o.~

**Something to Believe In**

_"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible."  
- St. Thomas Aquinas_

The Doctor stood before the reliquary, drinking in the details of the icons and statues. Everything was gilded and frilled, but crumbling as well in the way that well-loved objects often became, paint chipped and worn away by the beseeching hands of supplicants over the years. A crucifix in bronze, a statue of a female saint (he thought it was meant to be Mary Magdalene, but it was so stylized he could hardly tell), the mummified finger of some obscure local saint-all very ordinary for this tiny church in the mountains of Andalucia, and fascinating in the way that human relics of faith so often were.

Rose sat behind him on a pew, gazing thoughtfully into the flame of one of the votives and chewing her lip, brow furrowed. She had asked to come here-well, not here specifically (she had never been to Spain before, much less to this tiny chapel in the mountains forgotten by all but the parish priest and half a dozen old women who only missed mass for their deathbeds), but to a church, someplace quiet where she could think. She twisted her fingers in her lap, allowing the stress of her thoughts to come out in the gesture.

The events in the sanctuary base had shaken Rose in ways she wasn't quite sure how to deal with. Being confronted not just with the loss of home (funny how she thought of the TARDIS in conjunction with that word now, instead of her mother's flat) and the Doctor, but being slapped in the face with mortality, hers and Toby's.

_The valiant child, who will die in battle so very soon..._

She'd killed him. No pausing, no mercy. The Doctor said he'd already been dead, his mind consumed by The Beast. Rose hoped that was true, but deep in her heart, she feared that it wasn't. That night, when she dreamed, she knew she would hear Toby screaming.

The Doctor flopped himself onto the pew next to Rose, heels bouncing as he rested an elbow on each knee and studied her face in the soft glow of the votives and dappled stained glass light. He hadn't questioned her need to think, under the circumstances; she wasn't the only one feeling out of sorts. The choice of location had surprised him, though.

"Why here, Rose?" he questioned softly, startling her out of the dark thoughts she had been drifting through.

"Well, why not? That thing... beast, claimed to be Satan." Rose continued to twist her hands together, staring down at them and refusing to meet the Doctor's eyes. "Thought maybe going to a church would help."

The Doctor clicked his tongue thoughtfully against his teeth, his own gaze flicking over the reliquary again and his voice soft and low. "Churches are just buildings, Rose. All of human history, and religion is constantly evolving, never the same from one century to the next. Already, the icons right in front of us are being replaced with something else, something that captures more meaning for more people. That thing in the pit..." the Doctor sucked in a breath, running a hand through his hair and leaving it ruffled. "It lied, Rose. There's no great cosmic evil, there's just the things we do."

Rose flicked her eyes over the Doctor's face. "So you don't believe in anything, then?"

The Doctor met Rose's eyes, and gave her a small smile. "Oh, I didn't say that. Everyone needs faith of some kind; faith is the basis of hope, and imagination, and all sorts of nifty things. But ultimate good and evil, a God and a Devil? Nah, far too limiting. The universe becomes black and white when you do that, and I prefer technicolor."

Rose chewed on her lip for a moment, staring forward at the reliquary. She opened her mouth to speak a couple times, closing it again with a click of her jaw each time she rethought the question. The Doctor waited patiently, somehow sensing that what Rose said next would be difficult for both of them.

Rose didn't look at him as she spoke, the words spilling forth slowly as if they had been chewed over. "So, if there's no God, and no Devil, what is there? What do we believe in?"

The Doctor thought back to the pit, to his words just before smashing the urns holding the Beast in his prison. _But if I believe in one thing... just one thing... I believe in her! _

The Doctor shrugged, trying and failing to appear nonchalant about his answer. "I suppose... I suppose we believe in each other."

Rose took the Doctor's hand, lacing her fingers with his and giving him a shy smile. "I think I can handle that."


End file.
